In a hand held portable label printing apparatus or labeler, for example, of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,100,852 and 4,116,747 which issued to the assignee of the present invention, a series of pressure sensitive labels are carried by a web and are successively advanced over a platen where each label is printed with predetermined information by a set of selectable endless printing bands forming part of a movable print head. After each label is printed, the carrier web is advanced around a delaminator or peel edge where the printed label is peeled from the carrier web for application to an article by means of an applicating back-up roller or wheels. The movement of the print head and the alternating advancement of the carrier web are produced by an indexing mechanism which is preferably actuated by a trigger forming part of the handle portion of the labeler.
In a labeler of the type generally described above, it is common to use an ink applying roller which is supported for movement across the selected printing characters in response to movement of the print head. For example, in the hand-held labeler disclosed in abovementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,747, the holder for the ink roller is shown in FIGS. 1, 10 and 11 and is pivotally supported by a pivotal cover section of the labeler housing. The ink roller holder is deformable to release the journals of the ink roller from corresponding holes formed within the holder, and a new ink roller is inserted by snap-fitting the end journals into the bearing holes.
The cover section of the labeler housing is pivotally supported by a cross pin or shaft which also supports a pair of label applicator or applicating wheels, as shown in FIG. 12 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,116,747. The applicating wheels are spaced apart by a molded plastic U-shaped spring element which connects with a pivotal holder for the ink applying roller and is effective to urge the holder in a direction so that the ink applying roller contacts the selected printing characters on the endless printing band.
As mentioned in U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,731 which also issued to the Assignee of the present invention, the label applicating wheels described in connection with FIGS. 20-23 are positioned so that the outer label engaging peripheral surfaces of the wheels do not engage the labels in the areas where the labels have been printed so that wet printing ink is not smudged during application of the labels. Similarly, the applicating roll disclosed in German Pat. No. 1,155,390 is constructed with axially spaced circumferential grooves which define therebetween peripheral surfaces on contactng each label between the printed characters on the label.